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mrfoof82

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 26, 2010
577
15
Lawton, OK
This is pretty simple folks, as the 2012 iMac's availability is hinging on two things...
  1. Volume availability of Intel's Ivy Bridge processors.
  2. Availability of a Class 1 7000-series GPU from AMD.
Although Ivy Bridge bulk availability has been delayed yet again for a few weeks, the rumored mass availability date to manufacturers is April 29th, 2012. Apple is a banner customer for Intel, so expect Apple to ship as close as possible to the general availability date since odds are they'll get some of the earliest possible shipments of CPUs.

Additionally, don't expect the iMac to ship with AMD Radeon HD Mobility 6XXX GPUs. Now, I love the 6970M in my 27" iMac, but the reality is Class 2 GPUs ilke the 7650M, 7670M and 7690M have been available for some time. Those are the GPUs you'll see in the 21.5" and the low-end 27" SKUs. The Class 1 7970M however is not yet available. Granted, Dell's Alienware division has announced that their pending Alienware M17x R4 laptop will offer the 7970M as an option (as well as the nVidia GTX 660M and 675M), however there's no availability date as of yet. Once Dell offers a date as to when that ships, expect the iMac to be lined up with it, since that's the blocker on the high-end 27" iMac SKUs.

The only other major change we'll see is Bluetooth 4.0. I'm not yet confident in commenting on new SKUs for the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and Wireless Keyboard.

That's it. Once we have dates on those, we can expect iMacs to become available. I'll tentatively peg availability of the 2012 iMac at May 8th, 2012.

-----

For the record, I expect the top-tier SKU, with BTO options, to offer the Core i7 3770 and an AMD HD Radeon 7970M. The TDPs of the 3820, 3930K and 3960X are too high (130W vs 77W), and Apple will not offer the 3770K as it has an attached premium for having an unlocked clock multiplier.
 
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macalec

macrumors 6502
Mar 12, 2012
252
2
new imacs

They need to come out with them already- especially with the retina display.
 

Gaelic2

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2007
277
7
Mountains of N. California
More than likely..

Overall the upgrade is good enough for me to move from my first gen 27 i5.
YOU SAID IF YOUR WIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS TO EAT AN APPLE. NEVER!!!! IT KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY! Try oranges!:D

----------

More than likely..

Overall the upgrade is good enough for me to move from my first gen 27 i5.
YOU SAID IF YOUR WIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS TO EAT AN APPLE. NEVER!!!! IT KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY! Try PLUMS!:D
 

telepati

macrumors 6502
Jan 20, 2009
455
303
Before the Mountain Lion release probably on May. After release Mountain Lion they release upgrade package for Lion users and release all products with Mountain Lion for new buyers.
 

agentdcooper

macrumors newbie
Mar 14, 2012
13
0
Rumors in news reports today have suggested it will be out in the second half of the year. I hope they are wrong about that rumor.
 

mrfoof82

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 26, 2010
577
15
Lawton, OK
I see no reason at all that we won't see USB 3, too.

I'll agree. There's no guarantee, but I don't see why it wouldn't occur. As long as chipsets (for custom SOCs, not the iMac) are small enough, the motivating factor would be for further improved connected syncing for iPhones, iPods and iPads. When you want to sync video, or restore a new device from a previous backup, USB 2 is an absolute bottleneck.

There's not any other huge benefit for Apple for USB 3 aside from that. You can argue "external storage", and I'll somewhat concede that based on limited ThunderBolt options, but ThunderBolt is the *real* solution for that. USB 3 is going to be very niche going forward in its ideal applications.
 

taedouni

macrumors 65816
Jun 7, 2011
1,117
29
California
I don't mind if they delay it until early June but I just hope they chose to go with a GTX 680 (if possible for the high end model).
 

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,396
120
Colorado

"Anti-reflective displays have previously been something of a novelty for Apple computers, available only with built-to-order MacBook Pros. If the rumor turns out to be accurate, this would be the Cupertino company’s first desktop computer to offer this feature."

Hmm, past machines I had: iBook (2002) - anti-reflective display, eMac (2003) - anti-reflective display, iMac (2005) - anti-reflective display, iMac (2006) - anti-reflective display

Methinks the author might be new to the world of Apple computers? :)

Remember when anti-glare for CRT's was all the rage in the 90's, you had to pay more for it as an “upgrade”, before it became an expected feature. Since LCD was inherently anti-glare, industry flipped it convincing us it was worth the extra to have "high-gloss." Now here we are back discussing anti-glare as if its a “new” feature...for LCD screens!!

HA! Gotta love commercialism!
 

cocky jeremy

macrumors 603
Jul 12, 2008
6,075
6,280
"Anti-reflective displays have previously been something of a novelty for Apple computers, available only with built-to-order MacBook Pros. If the rumor turns out to be accurate, this would be the Cupertino company’s first desktop computer to offer this feature."

Hmm, past machines I had: iBook (2002) - anti-reflective display, eMac (2003) - anti-reflective display, iMac (2005) - anti-reflective display, iMac (2006) - anti-reflective display

Methinks the author might be new to the world of Apple computers? :)

Remember when anti-glare for CRT's was all the rage in the 90's, you had to pay more for it as an “upgrade”, before it became an expected feature. Since LCD was inherently anti-glare, industry flipped it convincing us it was worth the extra to have "high-gloss." Now here we are back discussing anti-glare as if its a “new” feature...for LCD screens!!

HA! Gotta love commercialism!
Maybe they just mean a specific type of anti-glare glass. Who knows.
 

Dangerous Theory

macrumors 68000
Jul 28, 2011
1,984
28
UK
What, so Apple factories will receive CPUs on the 29th April, and somehow build iMacs and get them shipped out for sale by May 8th??
 

TopToffee

macrumors 65816
Jul 9, 2008
1,037
971
What, so Apple factories will receive CPUs on the 29th April, and somehow build iMacs and get them shipped out for sale by May 8th??

Think it's very unlikely Apple will only receive the CPU's on launch day. They've probably got them by now, I would imagine.
 

forty2j

macrumors 68030
Jul 11, 2008
2,585
2
NJ

Disappointing, if true. I'm not sure what they're waiting for, unless they want one of the chips from the June batch.

I'm tempted to buy now.. but the anti-reflective screen, if true, is very appealing. I have terrible problems with glare, and miss the matte screen from my old iMac G5.

This would coincide with the release of Mountain Lion...

Not sure how my threads I've posted this in.. but a $30 OS X upgrade has absolutely no bearing on the hardware release. That it might coincide would be .. coincidental.
 

I8P'CS

Suspended
Jul 29, 2010
355
31
Don't think a redesign will happen, thes blogs cover their back by saying some say its due a redesign just in case it happens. Clearly Ivy Bridge chips plus 1080p FaceTime maybe usb 3 if Apple want to implement it.

Cant really see a reason for waiting if its only what i mentioned above, Don't use FaceTime and have Thunderbolt. People that bought iMacs in last few months/weeks have nothing to worry about as 2011 iMacs are very Beastly.
 

boy-better-know

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2010
1,350
137
England
This thread is like the one where that guy correctly predicted Diablo II's release date using logic. However, I think Apple have given us less to go on here. Hope it is soon though.
 
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